Schultze’ research article, titled “A Confession Account of an Ethnographer about Knowledge Work”, utilized ethnography as the core research design to explore knowledge work in situ (in the original position), with the intention of developing a grounded understanding of what knowledge production actually entails and what knowledge work is like.
The researcher notes that ethnography is an anthropological research approach that profoundly relies on first-hand observations made by the investigator immersed over a prolonged period of time in an unfamiliar or foreign environmental setting (Schultze, 2000). This method, according to the author, obliges the investigator to intimately observe, take notes, and engage in the daily life of the participants, and then writes about the observations and/or findings in descriptive detail. The investigator adopted a flexible and frequently unstructured design in the form of ethnography, ultimately suspending his own frame of reference and allowing him to be directed by the social setting of the participants to new and unanticipated insights (Schultze, 2000).
This particular study collected largely descriptive data from three samples of knowledge workers in the information and communication industry, including “…computer system administrators, competitive intelligence analysts, and librarians” (Schultze, 2000, p. 4). In particular, the investigator collected rich descriptions of professionals working in these sections through immersing himself into the daily lives of the participants, who worked in a United States-based Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. It is important to note that the investigator heavily relied on unstructured interviews and informal conversations with participants as major data collection strategies, not only to prevent jeopardizing his ability to observe in-the moment behaviors portrayed by participants but also to learn from the participants perspectives (Schultze, 2000).
This particular study purposed to undertake research on the work of producing or generating information in practice with the view of developing a better understanding of knowledge work, informing practices, and the role of knowledge management technologies used by groups of knowledge workers in a technology setting. Based on this broad format, it was beneficial for the investigator to employing ethnography research design as it enabled him to gain useful insights into the day-to-day actions and behaviors of the knowledge workers; that is, the researcher assumed an identity as a also enabled the investigator to establish a perspective similar to that of an insider, ultimately making it possible for him to collect unabridged rich textual information from the participants’ side of the story. Consequently, it can be argued that the researcher benefited from using this type of design as it not only enabled him to account for the complexity of behaviors witnessed in the sampled groups and demonstrate interrelationships among complex dimension of group interactions, but also provided the context for explaining behaviors and revealed qualities of group experience in a manner that other research methods cannot possibly achieve.
In summary, the researcher identified three informing practices, namely expressing, monitoring and translating, which were employed by knowledge workers in a proactive attempt to balance the subjective nature of the information they generated with actions and activities that increased its perceptible objectivity (Schultze, 2000). This major finding, according to the author, implies that objectivity and subjectivity in information production is inseparably entwined, and that both are fundamentally significant in knowledge work.
Dissertation Review
- Titled “…A Qualitative Study of Experiences, Challenges, and Individual Transitions for Engineering Managers in Aerospace Companies”, the dissertation under review was done by C.A. Howard and presented to the Pennsylvania State University in August 2003.
- Problem: The researcher had identified a gap in literature on the challenges faced by engineering professionals, who intended to transit from practice to management
- The research design used in this study is phenomenology. The researcher purposed to investigate the experiences and difficulties faced by engineering professionals as they transited to the position/role of engineering manager. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1) what is the job-related context of the managers during the transition from engineer to engineering manager, 2) what experiences are common for engineers transitioning into management, and 3) what did engineering managers find most challenging in the transformation from engineering to engineer manager (Howard, 2003).
- Five engineering managers working for aerospace companies on Long Island New York were included in the study through purposive sampling, which relied on criterion and typical case sampling.
- The literature review, located in chapter 2, was used in the study to provide foundational knowledge, related research literature, non-research sources, as well as theoretical perspectives on the issues that interested the investigator for purposes of reinforcing the findings of the study.
- An open-ended interview schedule was used for purposes of data collection
- Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, after which data was reduced to allow for similar themes to emerge.
- The approach was explained as content analysis, intended to code the qualitative responses from the participated into independent themes that could be used to answer the research problem
- I learnt that quantitative data, which is mainly in textual form, can be analyzed using a rigorous procedure that takes into account issues of validity and reliability, and the information arising from the analysis, in terms of associated themes, can be used to answer issues of interest to the researcher.
Reference List
Howard, C.A. (2003). From engineer to engineering manager: A qualitative study of experiences, challenges, and individual transitions for engineering managers in aerospace companies. Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, United States. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.
Schultze, U. (2000). A confessional account of an ethnography about knowledge work. MIS Quarterly, 24(1), 3-41. Retrieved from Business Source Premier Database.